As I write this, the temperature outside is -5. That’s five degrees below zero. Last night, the low got down to -15. I’m thanking God for a functioning furnace, and wondering what people did before the advent of modern home heating.

I’m also thinking about the people whose furnaces aren’t working. Right now would be a terribletime to lose the ability to heat your house. In the winter, it’s hard to imagine a more important system in your home than the heating system.

And, unfortunately, there are people out there who know that, and who are looking to make a buck off of your fear of freezing.

Last month, Channel 31 News here in Denver ran an investigative report on furnace scams in the Denver area. I watched it with interest, because I’ve seen these kinds of scams first hand. Recently.

I had buyers who made an appointment to have their furnace cleaned in their new house. The technician, however, didn't clean the furnace. Rather, he informed then that it was leaking dangerous amounts of carbon monoxide and needed to be replaced immediately. Then he sat down and started working up a contract for them to purchase a new furnace, from him on an extended payment plan..

They called me, understandably freaked out. I thought that the whole thing sounded a little fishy, especially since the inspector had tested the unit for CO leaks and had found none. So the inspector went back out and re-tested it. No CO leak. Then they brought out an HVAC company from my Very Impressive Providers List to inspect it. Again, no leak. The furnace is old and needs some repair, and it will probably need to be replaced within the next few years. But it isn’t leaking anything, and doesn’t need to replaced right now.

This isn’t the first story I’ve heard like this. It happened with one of my listings last year. Other agents are reporting it happening to their clients HVAC companies are telling homeowners that their perfectly good furnaces need to be replaced, or subjected to expensive repairs they don’t need.

This is why I developed my Very Impressive Providers list. I figure if someone I know is happy with a particular product or service, that’s usually a good sign. I can’t guarantee it, but it’s a heck of a lot better than picking a name at random.

When you need something in your home cleaned or serviced, don’t just hire the first company you run across. Ask around. Consult my VeryImpressive Providers list. If you don’t see what you need, call me. I know people who know people. I can usually find somebody who somebody thinks is really good.

So, while you're staying warm this winter, you can stay smart and avoid scummy salesmen posing as HVAC technicians!

With lots of good wishes for a warm and safe pre-Christmas season,

Mary Beth

P.S. The market continues to hum along. I saw it slow for a while in the early fall, but now it's gotten crazy busy again! Inventory is still low, and good properties are still selling quickly. And interest rates are still low, but they’re inching up. If you’re interested in buying or selling, or if you just want to know what your house would be worth if you did decide to sell, give me a call. As always, zero obligation!

Mary Beth Loves Denver

The local scoop from Mary Beth Bonacci

Well, there is good news and bad news in this crazy Denver real estate market.

The good news is that, in July, inventory increased by just over 4%. The bad news is that, even with that increase, July inventory still set a record low, with only 7352 total properties on the market.

That is not a lot of houses.

What does this mean? It means there are a lot more buyers than there are homes to sell them. And so, especially in the lower price points, good listings get multiple offers, one winner, and several disappointed “losers.”

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and wonderful 2017! I hope you all had wonderful holidays, and that the return to “ordinary time” hasn’t been too traumatic.

My holidays were wonderful. Nice time with family, a fun New Year’s Eve party in San Francisco, and then of course the obligatory week laid out with the nasty post-holiday bug that seems to have felled so many this season.

But the little “holiday” story I want to tell today happened during the holidays, but it wasn’t particularly festive. In fact, it could have ruined a lot of people’s entire season.

I bought my house on Friday. Again. I have owned it for eleven years this month. And I have refinanced, by my count, five times.

Why? Because I want to pay it off. I want to be that cash buyer who goes to the head of the multiple bids. I want to bypass that mortgage payment every month, and write a nice check to some deserving charity instead.

If you are one of my Facebook friends, you saw a stream of prayer request posts from me last month. I had clients who were in a very complicated situation. I didn’t go into detail on Facebook, and I won’t here, but basically title issues were threatening to cause them to lose their house to foreclosure before we could close it with our buyers. The situation consumed me for well over a month. I literally spent every day looking for new solutions — and pushing forward with the multiple potential solutions we were working on. Which we eventually did — at the 11th hour— thanks to a whole lot of work, a lot of thinking outside the box, and more than a few prayers.

So imagine my displeasure when, a few weeks later, I heard a radio commercial for a “discount” real estate company that said “Most houses sell within a couple of days. Why pay an agent 6% for just a few days work?”

Somewhere in Las Vegas tonight, there is a stage with a trophy with my name on it, that I am not there to claim.

After 11 years in the business, I am being inducted into the RE/MAX Hall of Fame. It’s one of those achievement awards that RE/MAX agents work a lifetime to attain. I hadn’t been tracking my production closely, and I honestly thought I was a good two years away from achieving it. But the lovely people at RE/MAX International surprised me with the news last month.

And of course I’m sharing the news with you, because I’m excited about it. And because it’s what we agents are supposed to do.

So here I am at 35,000 feet, watching a People's Court marathon on my iPad. Things have sure changed from the days of my full-time travel. Back in my day, we had nothing but bad food and in-flight magazines to keep us occupied. But now, thanks to the miracles of modern internet technology, I can watch a parade of disaffected roommates and former lovers hash out their differences on national television.

The last case caught my attention, though -- enough to motivate me to turn off the streaming and start writing.

It was the case of a young couple who were new homeowners. After they bought the house, they discovered that the fireplace was in dangerous condition and needed extensive work. The couple were irate. The sellers had told them the fireplace was fine. And instead it was very not-fine. They had children -- children -- living in a house with a dangerous fireplace. Someone had to pay.